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Champion Of Goodness


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#1 Laufey

Posted 09 March 2003 - 01:45 PM

Champion Of Goodness

"How can you do this? I simply don't understand!" Mazzy Fentan, halfling champion of goodness, stalked back and forth across the neatly polished floor of a pleasant room at the Mithrest Inn of Athkatla. The halfling's normally neatly braided hair bristled like the fur of an angry cat, and her eyes were dark with frustration and anger as she turned to glare at her companion.

Lyannin of Candlekeep was sitting on her bed, writing in her journal. Now and then she paused to nibble consideringly on her quill, or to tuck an errant lock of chestnut hair back behind her ear. She was a tall human woman in her early twenties, with calm grey eyes, a firm chin and a face that was pleasant rather than outright beautiful. "I'm sorry?" she said, sounding honestly puzzled by the outburst. "What is the matter?"

"You! Them! You know what I mean, you have to!" Mazzy plopped down in one of the chairs standing next to the small table, then leant forward across the tabletop. "I don't understand you, Lyannin. You are a paladin, and renowned for your noble deeds of virtue despite your young age…"

"If you say so," Lyannin said, wrinkling her nose a little. "I've told you before that I only did what I had to regarding Sarevok. I would much have preferred for a different solution…"

"…and there can be no doubt that you have Ilmater's favour still, and are faithful and true."

"I try my best, yes. So far my Lord seems reasonably pleased."

"So why do you insist on…on wasting yourself, risking corruption by exposing yourself to Evil the way you do?"

Lyannin blinked, putting her journal aside. "Come again? As you said, I am a paladin. Getting in contact with evil sort of comes with the job. Or did you want me to join a cloister?"

"No! Well, yes! Maybe that would be for the best, considering the kind of contact you seem to favour lately. I am speaking of your…companions…of course." Mazzy made a disgusted grimace. "That disgusting dwarf, with his gluttony and drunken binges, and his mercenary ways! He's completely ruthless and you know it. And that power-hungry and egotistical wizard, that one would likely gladly wipe out all of Athkatla if he thought it would give him the arcane powers he wants!"

"Not all of Athkatla, I think," Lyannin said in an utterly serious voice. "Possibly a small hamlet."

"THIS IS NOT FUNNY! And then there's the Drow. Her kind are evil to the core, do you not know that? She cannot be trusted! None of them can, they are Evil and you know it! And the same goes for that slimy Kara-Turan thief."

"Hmmm…" Lyannin said, giving Mazzy a thoughtful look as she rubbed her chin. The halfling was very red in the face and looked close to tears. "I see you are very upset. Now, I know that you don't approve of the others, but what exactly is it that you would have me do in order to make you happy?"

"You shouldn't sully yourself with such creatures! You are a good and noble person, you should have a party of similarly pure and virtuous companions. Anything other is…is just wrong!"

"Why?"

"Why?" Mazzy said, sounding flabbergasted.

"Yes. Why is it wrong, in your eyes?"

The halfling thumped her hand against the tabletop for emphasis. "Because you are a paladin!"

"Yes Mazzy, I know that. And…?"

"And…and paladins are supposed to destroy Evil, not to…to have beer-drinking contests with it, or…or to discuss the disgusting habits of Drow mating with it." Mazzy's mouth scrunched up as if she had just bitten into a lemon. "And certainly not to…to…"

"Smooch it?"

"YES!"

Again the paladin displayed what Mazzy deemed to be an appalling lack of guilt. "Well," she said, a small smile tugging at her mouth. "Edwin does have a very amusing way with words and a clever mind, as well as a sense of humour. Also, I find him attractive. Is there a problem with that? It's not as if I'm not old enough to take any lover I please, you know. Would you rather have me take up with Korgan or Viconia?"

"NO!"

"Well then?"

"But you're a paladin! You're a good person! Good people shouldn't consort with evil people!"

Lyannin didn't answer immediately. She got up from the bed, and stretched lazily, her back creaking a little. "Ooof…I think heavy platemail is overrated if you ask me. Anyway, there are different kinds of paladins, Mazzy," she said in a kind voice. "And different opinions about what it means to be good, or evil, or how a good person should act. I can only speak for myself." She paused. "The credo of my Lord Ilmater is compassion, as you know. Compassion, and love, for those who wish it. I believe there can be no goodness without compassion myself." Her smile turned wry. "We are used to most other people thinking us quite insane. You're not the first to question my beliefs, and you won't be the last. If you wish, I will attempt to explain them." The paladin looked out the window, her eyes following a pair of circling sea gulls. The distant cries of the birds could just barely be heard. "As I see it, a paladin should try to promote good, and to prevent evil. Can you agree with that?"

"But that is what I already said!" Mazzy protested.

"No. You said destroy evil, which is very different. Consider our companions, for example. What would you have had me do, if you think it was wrong of me to let them join me, when they asked for it? Should I have cut Edwin and Korgan down, when they did nothing to harm me? Should I have let Viconia be burnt at the stake by those fanatics who had captured her? They would have been destroyed, but would my actions have been those of a good person?"

"You could have had them arrested though!" Mazzy stubbornly insisted.

"For what? They had committed no crimes that I could have proven before a court of law. Should they go to jail on my word alone? Because I decided they were 'evil'? Should a good person imprison others on a whim?"

"But by allowing them to roam free they may still cause evil!"

Lyannin shook her head, and for the first time a tiny flicker of anger blazed in her eyes, making them turn the dark violet grey of a storm cloud. "So I should imprison them or kill them for what they might do at some undefined point in the future? No, Mazzy. Enough people have already attempted to slay or imprison me for what I might become. Galvarey springs to mind, who thought it would be 'Harper Justice' to shut me up in a tiny chamber a few miles underground, for all eternity. If I acted like that, how would I be any better than him?"

The paladin shrugged, and then she smiled that ironic little smile again. "Besides, there is something I think you haven't considered. As long as Edwin, Viconia and Korgan are travelling with me, rather than say, working for the Zhentarim or the Twisted Rune, they have agreed to follow my lead, and they do so. That means they will not 'cause evil' as you put it, and if they did it would be on my head. So, it seems to me that I am indeed preventing evil acts. Why is that so wrong, in your opinion?"

Mazzy jumped off her chair and paced over to the taller woman, glaring up at her. "It just is! And how long will they put up with it, before their baser instincts take over? What if they decide to leave you?"

Lyannin sighed, and when she spoke again she sounded sad, but resigned. "If that should happen, then my heart would be heavy, for I would have failed to make them want to stay. But they are not my slaves, they are my friends, and…and one of them is more. If they should wish to leave…any of them…then that is their right."

"Friends!" Mazzy snorted. "Evil is not capable of having 'friends' or of feeling love. What are you hoping to do? Redeem them? Make them into better people? That is a doomed effort, and you will only come to grief from it. You…you might as well try to make friends with your brother, that Sarevok!"

There was a flash of steel in those grey eyes, and Lyannin's mouth tightened. "You presume much," she said, and now her voice was a little clipped. "It is your right to believe as you like, but I will not dismiss people so easily, nor think that I know the full capacity of their souls, or what they are capable of. But I do believe that unless a person is too insane to comprehend himself or his actions, he is capable of change. People are not like Irenicus' golems, cast in one mould and doomed to remain the same for the rest of their days, lifeless and static. Have I not changed myself, since I first left Candlekeep? Has not your life changed you?" She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again she sounded calm once more. "As for the other, no, I would never try to 'make' them into anything. They are my friends, not my slaves, as I said. Furthermore, such a change would be forced and worth nothing. For example, I would have liked to be able to save Sarevok, had I been able to. I know only too well what he went through. But I could not reach him, and he was lost to darkness. Had I had more time…I might have succeeded. He might have decided that he wanted something different. Or not. I will never know that. Now, I accept my friends and love them as they are, though I do not claim to love everything they have ever done. There is a big difference."

The paladin chuckled quietly. "As for travelling only with 'good' people, what would be the reason for that? People in a brightly lit room do not need another candle; they already have enough light. But for those who walk in darkness, that single candle may be of real comfort. The already perfectly good - if you believe mere mortals can be such - do not need a paladin's presence or words. And a paladin should strive for good, as I said, not for the praise from people already inclined to be impressed with her. I would rather have the pleasure of knowing that I may have helped one single soul come a little bit closer towards knowing trust, compassion, friendship…and love. And I will never believe that those feelings are something a paladin should stomp out in her own soul, simply because some may disapprove of whom she chooses to show them to."

Mazzy shook her head. "I do not understand…you are a pure and good person yourself, are you not? I have seen your actions, and they have been ever virtuous. Yet you sound as if you do not believe in your own goodness."

"Ha! No Mazzy, I am not pure or perfect. For one thing, I am a being of flesh and blood, and we are all flawed, every single one of us. And I more than most, as a Child of Bhaal. Evil lurks behind my soul, whispers in my blood, and is entwined around my heart. I know very well what it is like to have dark urges, to feel the desire for death and bloody murder. I fight the darkness within as best I can, but I am not flawless. I have made mistakes before, and will do so again. One day I may well fall entirely; it is my greatest fear. And then I would become a greater evil than any of my friends could ever be. I will not put myself above them; I do not deserve that. If I think my example may help them, it is not because of me being perfect, it is because I am imperfect, and my God loving me despite my faults."

"Suppose they turn against you, though? Suppose they attempt some foul deed? What then? Could you kill them, if you had to? Could you kill him?"

Lyannin shivered a little, and Mazzy didn't think it was caused solely by the thin yellow tunic she was wearing. "I do not know what I would do, Mazzy. I don't claim to be omnipotent. Nobody is. If such a thing were to happen, I would try reason, try to find a peaceful solution. And if that were to fail…I do not know. It would depend on so many things; I cannot even begin to guess. I hope it will never happen."

"He will corrupt you, you know. He will turn you to evil."

"No! My mind is my own, as is my soul, and my choices. If I become corrupt, it will be because of the choices I made. I would never place responsibility for my deeds on another's shoulders."

"You could Fall," Mazzy said, and now she sounded seriously concerned.

"Yes. I could." Lyannin idly twined a strand of her brown hair between her fingers, the way she often did when she was thinking. "So could any paladin, even the noble Sir Keldorn, given the right (or wrong) circumstances. It is part of who we are, of the life we lead. But I cannot let that fear prevent me from following my conscience, or my heart. I can pray to Ilmater for guidance, and I often do, but in the end I must make my own decisions and hope that they are the right ones, same as everybody else." She fondly patted the gleaming great sword that was leaning against the table. "As long as I can still wield this beauty, I guess I'm not entirely lost. Carsomyr knows such things." Her smile turned a little dreamy. "Not lost, but in love. You should try it. Korgan seems very sweet on you."

After that there were a few minutes of coughing and sputtering before Mazzy regained her breath. "Very well," she finally said. "I think you may well be insane, as you said. But it is your decision to make, as much as I disapprove of it. I think I shall go on a walk to think on your words though. Perhaps I will understand them better in time." She paused at the door, turning around. "But…wait a moment. If you choose your companions because you think they may benefit from being in contact with you, then why did you choose me?"

Lyannin, who had been in the process of opening her journal again, looked Mazzy straight in the eye, and eventually the halfling lowered her gaze. "I believe you know that already, Mazzy, and I hope that my explanation will indeed benefit you." The grey eyes turned towards the book again. "If you see Edwin, please ask him to come up and see me. Politely."

Mazzy's legs felt a little unsteady as she left the room, and her head felt as if it was spinning. The words of her party leader burned in her soul as she walked downstairs, frightening, yet compelling. The world…was changing, though she couldn't define how, but it seemed a window had opened inside her mind, and through it she could see a view that she had never known existed. And then her musings were interrupted by a hoarse voice.

“Move aside, pipsqueak! This is a fine establishment for humans only, not for pint-sized runts!”

The speaker was a large and burly human man, broad in the shoulders and body. He sported a rather untidy stubble of blond beard, and wore a nice-looking chainmail as well as a large, two-handed sword. Mazzy judged that the weapon was almost certainly taller than she was. Not that that impressed her particularly.

“I go where I wish, churl,” she stated in a cool voice. “Do not pester me, or I will be forced to teach you a lesson.”

“Ha! The tiny woman wants to play rough, does she? Well, I can do that!” The man leered horribly and made a very rude gesture. Then his eyes suddenly widened with surprise, there was a violent spurt of blood from his mouth accompanied by a meaty, wet and crunching sound, and he dropped to the floor, quite dead.

“That will teach ye, longlegs!” Korgan proclaimed as he pulled his blood-dripping axe out of the dead man’s back. “Short do nay mean wimpy.” The scruffy dwarven mercenary gave Mazzy a brief smile from out of the depths of his graying beard.

“I could have handled him myself, you know,” Mazzy said.

“Course ye could lass. If ye were the weakling, soppy type, I would nay consider ye worth helpin’ out. Har! Care te join this old dwarf fer a beer or ten, my treat? Ye look downright sad and lonesome, ye could do with some cheering up."

A sharp rebuke had almost passed the halfling's lips as she turned towards the dwarf. Then, she suddenly thought better of it. Compassion. No goodness without compassion… She would rather draw forth the goodness of a single soul than have the adulation of her peers…how can it be so? She is strong though, and she has not been corrupted, despite her strange ways. Perhaps…perhaps I should try something new. Just this once.

"As you wish," Mazzy said, smiling. "But only one beer. Let us take things slowly."

"Aye," Korgan grinned, and he actually sounded sincere. "As ye wish."

And as Mazzy Fentan, determined champion for goodness, followed the infamous dwarven mercenary towards the bar, she felt more contented and at peace with herself than she had in many a long year.
Rogues do it from behind.




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